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Group widens Democrat influence
The Progressives want to reach independents, disaffected Republicans and left-leaning groups.
By BILL COATS
Published February 3, 2006
NORTHDALE - Hoping to improve their grass roots reach, local Democrats have formed the Northwest Hillsborough County Progressives.
"We're borrowing a page from the Republicans," said Jack Sandler, the group's chairman and a steering committee member of the Hillsborough County Democratic Party.
Sandler said the Progressives will reach out to independents, disaffected Republicans and, particularly, Democrat-leaning groups such as Howard Dean's Democrats for America, the Sierra Club and gay and lesbian organizations. Sandler hopes the group will organize Democratic voters block by block.
Sandler is the Democrats' organizer for House District 47, a Republican-leaning section of Northdale, Lutz and Odessa that Sandler admits contains mostly "red precincts," including his own in Northdale.
"If we had gotten another 65 to 70 people to vote for Kerry rather than Bush, we would have been a blue precinct rather than a red precinct," he said.
Across north Hillsborough, "our statistics show it's doable if we do a better job of getting our base out to vote and get some of the independents," said Sandler, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of South Florida.
A meeting of the Northwest Hillsborough County Progressives is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Northdale Recreation Center, 15550 Spring Pine Drive.
[Last modified February 2, 2006, 11:27:10]
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